As women we often look at our favorite celebrities and envy the perfection and the beauty of their skins. Not every one of those women however has the naturally beautiful and flawless skins that we see on the cover page of magazines, in music videos, runways or even on the big screens. Movie stars and celebrities in fact often have to work just as hard as the average woman to maintain that illusion of perfect skin and flawless beauty. The difference however lies in the fact that these celebrities have a few dozen makeup artists and stylists at their disposal to help them achieve or maintain these flawless looks.

But whether it is the overpaid makeup artist or the mother of four children at home who is interested in makeup application, the basic points of makeup application always remain the same.

Makeup

The first and most important step in any makeup routine is the application of the foundation. The biggest mistakes that you can make with makeup start at the level of the foundation - using too much foundation, too little foundation, or the wrong color foundation. The foundation must match your skin tone. If it is too light or too dark, then you face will be visibly lighter or darker than the rest of your body. The purpose of foundation is simply to even out the appearance of a uniform skin tone.

If you have almost perfect skin tone, then you may only use the foundation where the tone needs evening out. But if you have uneven skin tones throughout most of your face, and you use too little foundation, you are not likely to benefit from any coverage by the makeup - in fact, the entire point of the makeup is to provide coverage for that flawless look! Likewise too much foundation would the effect of making your skin would look painted or masked, and the chances of your makeup cracking or creasing on your skin is greatly increased. Finding the right balance is very important.

Another point to note is that concealer is not to replace the purpose of the foundation - it should only be used where it is needed (to hide a blemish or flaw on the skin's surface).

Once you have succeeded in creating a flawless base of even and healthy skin tone with your foundation, you can proceed to set this base with a light application of powder. Translucent powders are the easiest to use, but you can also select powders in you skin tone. Be careful however when selecting a powder that is specific to your skin base - the powder should not add any additional color to your foundation, the foundation is the basis of your entire makeup.

All additional steps in the makeup routine are based around these two basic steps of applying the foundation and its finishing touches. Irregardless of if you have the best eye makeup or the most beautiful and sensuous lips, without the flawless skin it all goes unnoticed.